Calling all gamers from casual to hardcore, newbies and retrogamers, data nerds, hobbyists, artists, scientists, tech geeks, edgy engineers and serious gamers, Science Gallery is seeking proposals for its major 2012 exhibition GAME launching in October 2012, during Dublin’s tenure as European City of Science.

With global industry sales predicted to reach $68.4 billion this year, the games industry has overtaken all other entertainment industries in the last ten years. An average UK gamer is 23 years old, has been playing games for over ten years and spends on average 11 hours per week playing games. Ireland is rapidly emerging as a global hub for animation and games with many of the leading software and middleware developers located here.

GAME at Science Gallery will explore the multifaceted world of gaming from the technology and design behind games to gaming and society and the history of games. Jane McGonigal in her book “Reality is broken” argues that games can make us better and that by harnessing what game developers have learnt about optimizing human experience we can develop games that can tackle some of the major issues of the 21st century from depression and obesity to making people more socially connected. GAME at Science Gallery will explore the amazing potential of games and offer opportunities to visitors to engage in numerous aspects of this theme, even creating their very own game during a visit.

GAME will ask why people play games? How do our brains respond to games? What makes a game compelling? What will the future of gaming look like? How can we harness games for good?

GAME is Science Gallery’s end of year exhibition for 2012. We are interested in receiving proposals for exhibits, events and workshops along the following themes,

Game Technology from state of the art physics, graphics, animation and audio to augmented reality to cutting edge interfaces to neuro-gaming

Game Design from the art of games, to the mechanics of games and game narratives and storytelling

Games & Society from gamification to competitive games to the psychology of gaming and serious games to gaming as a professional sport to the opportunity for gaming to make us better

History of Games from Spacewar! to the first home consoles to speculative pieces exploring the future of gaming

Game production and the business of games – what do game designers consider in developing a new game, how do games make money and what are the new trends in this growing market?

GAME objectives

To engage young adult visitors to GAME not merely as consumers of games, but as potential game creators;

To inspire visitors with the opportunities in the games sector;

To provide an engaging experience of the creative process of game design and development;

To provide exciting experiences of current trends and future directions in games (mobile/social games, neuro-gaming, AR, etc);

To provoke critical engagement with games and game-culture and “gamification”;

To highlight the different skills (art, science, design, storytelling, strategy) involved in game creation

To impact over 50,000 visitors on-site during the 3 month exhibition run and over 100,000 visitors online (through key online-only elements)

To work with key games industry and research partners and EI/IDA to highlight Ireland’s position as a potential hub for games industry

To help put Ireland on the map for games with key international audiences including game industry, investors, tech community through significant national and international media coverage for GAME and its participants

To host high impact events, workshops and demos during the course of GAME for young adult, educational and industry/investor audiences

To inspire more young people to take an interest in computer science, physics and mathematics and to motivate them to develop their skills in these areas

Curator and Advisors:

GAME will be curated by Steve Collins, Founder of Swrve and previously co-founder of Havok and Kore, Mads Haahr a lecturer in Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Computer Science with a focus on computer game studies, mobile and ubiquitous computing and self organizing systems, Dylan Collins, Founder of Fight My Monster and previously Demonware and JOLT and Michael John Gorman, the Founding Director of Science Gallery and Adjunct Professor of Creative Technologies at Trinity College Dublin.

Please feel free to forward this e-mail and link to other forums and individuals and do please contact us at vicky.lee@sciencegallery.com, if you would like to suggest projects or people for the exhibition.

About Science Gallery:

Science Gallery (www.sciencegallery.com) is a dynamic new model for public engagement at the interface between science and the arts which has rapidly achieved significant international profile since its launch in Dublin in 2008. Science Gallery is an initiative of Trinity College Dublin with support from the Wellcome Trust, our Science Circle of Dell, Google, ICON, NTR Foundation, and PACCAR. Science Gallery is also supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Science Foundation Ireland. Sponsors during 2012 include Intel, IBM and Dublin City Council.

Monster Animation are currently seeking a Flash Animator to join our creative team for new preschool production, Cosmo. An excellent standard of animation and thorough knowledge of Flash essential. Must be able to work in a fast paced team environment. Immediate start, with a contract that will run to end of November.